Residual Income

When you’re looking at starting a home based business you have to use a lot of common sense. Do your research. There are a lot of new companies starting up with flashy offers. New companies start up all the time. And just as quickly they disappear. Wake Up Now was the big thing just a few months ago. They had highly aggressive business practices.

They’re gone now.

A lot of companies have gimmicks designed to lure you in. They promise you can make $5000 this month. Some claim to be free to join. A few will even claim to pay YOU to join! I guarantee if it costs nothing you won’t make a lot of money from it. If you make any at all. The old adage “if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is” was never more appropriate than in this arena.

Thankfully there are genuine companies out there that you can succeed with. You just need to use a little common sense.

Stop looking for a free lunch. Most genuine home based businesses are going to cost something to start up. Obviously some cost more than others and some provide more value.

The genuine opportunities don’t rely on bells and whistles. They don’t need to. They know they are a good bet. Look for a company that’s been around a while. Most companies that start up fail within the first year. Many are designed to be that way.

If you’re serious about working from home just make sure you do your research. There are so many scams out there. But there are real opportunities out there too.

Those words came to my head last night. I know where they came from but this isn’t the blog to discuss that topic.

We’re feeling the momentum. Business is slow at the moment. Mainly because we seem to have a million other things clamoring for our attention. When you have a nine to five type job it’s easy to be productive. You have set hours. You show up at a set time, do your work for a set number of hours then go home.

When you work from home it’s equally easy to get distracted. Family get the idea that because you’re not at a desk in an office you’re available to them whenever they want you. Plus you have a myriad of personal distractions competing for your time. Self discipline is critical. We haven’t fully acquired that, yet. But we’re getting there.

Last night we were busy setting appointments. The result is tomorrow we’re meeting with three separate people. A busy day ahead. We’re in the business of helping people. Financially and health wise. It feels good to be moving in that direction again. Wish us luck for tomorrow!

We’re beginning to see that momentum. Excitement is building, leading us to take action.

Our lives are crazy these days. I’m sure many of you can identify with this. An elderly relative broke his hip last July and spent seven weeks in a rehab center. We had to sort out his place, as well as visit him. He went home, but as he was only able to get care for three hours a day for just three weeks, we had to go to his home every other day to help him out with laundry, shopping, cleaning etc.

A few months ago, he had a relapse and is now in a nursing home. We have to prepare his place to sell it, as well as visit him as often as we can. As well as prepare our place as we might be moving soon. That’s a whole other story.

So, why am I telling you this? I’ve been thinking the past few days, thank God we have this work from home business. If we had regular jobs, either we wouldn’t be able to take the time off to give our relative the proper care he needed, or we’d have lost our jobs by now. Let’s face it, what company in America is going to let you take so much time off to care for someone who needs you? But as we work for ourselves, we can take all the time we need to give our relative the proper care and attention. Family is so important, right? They have to come first. As it is, we both lost our jobs within three months of each other before any of this with our relative even happened.

Time. We can never have enough of it. Especially when we work long hours every day. Our lives are fleeting enough as it is without spending so much time behind a desk, or wherever it is you work. Your job puts money in your bank, pays the bills, puts food on the table and keeps a roof over your head. But it takes so much in return. It steals so much of our time. Time we could better spend with our family. I work with my wife. So we live together and we work together. And believe it or not, it really works for us! We get on so well. We’re an amazing team. As we have been so busy we haven’t been able to devote as much time as we’d like to our business. But the check we get every month for the work we have already done keeps holding us over.

We’re in hibernation. Until spring. I’ve blogged a couple of times now about how great working from home is, how nice it is not having to face a rough commute to work and back in the cold and snow. And it IS great! However, there is a flip side. Since the storm on Monday I haven’t been outside, other than to get the mail and, of course, shovel all this delightful snow.

I love snow. I really do. But enough already! I had to shovel eight inches of slop on Monday. Today I had to shovel another inch or so of snow that seemed to be eighty per cent water. And we are meant to have another snowstorm this weekend. This one could be the biggest storm of the season. Oh well, if nothing else, at least it gives me exercise. I just wish I could remember to eat an Access bar before going out to shovel. At least it would give me more energy. But roll on spring now when at least we can get out and mingle more. But all things considered, it still beats facing those treacherous messy commutes!

So, to all of you who work from home, how do you cope with the winter hibernation blues?

So we have another wild week of winter weather on tap. January had two big snowstorms and a lot of bone chilling cold. February hasn’t been as cold so far, but the snow just keeps on coming. Yesterday we had 8 inches on Staten Island, NY. Tonight we’re expecting snow and ice. And we potentially have the biggest snowstorm yet.

So, what does this have to do with our business? Well, I feel sorry for everyone who has to struggle to work every day through all this inclement weather. It can’t be any fun at all.

For us, this weather just gives us an excuse to stay home and make phone calls. That’s the advantage of working from home, you see. We get to pick and choose when we go out. And when we don’t go out we can still work. Making calls, blogging, internet marketing. It’s all about getting the word out. We’re not in sales. We don’t sell at all. We refer people to our company. We’re marketers. It’s fun. It’s interesting. Yes, it’s challenging at times. But I prefer this sort of challenge to slogging to work and back day in, day out. That’s no fun at all.

Internet Marketing is a huge business these days. With the wealth of social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn giving us access to thousands of people, it’s so simple for us to get our message out there. And then of course there are the blog sites such as WordPress. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s so easy anyone can do it. On the other hand, it’s so easy anyone can do it. Even without knowing the best way to go about it.

When a person decides to go into business with you, whether as a customer or as a business builder, it isn’t just your business that attracts their attention. No matter how good your business is, what’s the first thing your prospective customer is going to see?

You.

You are their first port of call. You are the person behind the company, the person they are going to talk to. You aren’t just promoting your business. You’re promoting yourself. And as they listen to your sales pitch they are going to be thinking one thing.

Can I trust you?

Trust is the most important element, the glue that holds your business together. It’s one of those things that can be so hard to gain. But, so easily lost. As you tell them what you have to offer, you need to be up front and honest. Because if you lie to them, if you make it sound so easy when it’s not, they are not going to stay with you once they learn the truth. So you have to prove to that person you are worthy of their trust. To do that, you have to be trustworthy. Internet marketing isn’t just about making money. Obviously, that’s the biggest reason we do it. But, it can’t be our only focus. If you’re looking for customers you have to provide a good level of service. It’s not just about making a sale. Especially if you want them to come back for more. If you are looking to bring someone into your business to partner with you, then you have to make it all about that person. You need to put their needs first if they are going to stay with you for the long term.

Remember, trust is hard to gain but so easily lost.

We’ve been active on Facebook a lot the last couple of weeks. We joined a lot of work from home groups. We’ve seen good practices. And we’ve seen bad practices. Some people actually pretend they’re looking for a business to work with and ask you to friend them and send them a message with more information. When you do, they pretty much ignore you. But behind your back they’re trolling through your friend list, messaging your friends, trying to prospect them. I made a post on Facebook about this. A couple of people tried to make out it wasn’t such a bad tactic. But we’re not convinced. Most of us use Facebook to keep in touch with our family and friends. Most of our family and friends have no interest in networking. So we don’t feel they should be subjected to messages from people prospecting them. I don’t know, maybe we’re just naive. We’re in a great business with the intention of helping people both with their finances and with their health. Yes, we also want to make money. But not at any cost. Not at the cost of our integrity. We want to be able to look prospective business partners in the eye and let them see that yes, they can trust us. Maybe we won’t make as many contacts this way. Maybe we won’t make as much money as some of the more bullish networkers. But we’ll get there. And we’ll have the satisfaction of knowing we did it the right way and we haven’t hurt anybody.

So what do you think? Is integrity so important? Or do you feel anything is justified when it comes to making a buck?